I prefer to listen to people: Rahul Gandhi

Raipur, April 11 (IANS) Replying to opposition parties that criticise him for his brief speeches, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi said Saturday evening that he would rather reach out to people and understand them. “The opposition says I don’t give long speeches. That is true as I don’t have the habit of delivering speeches for two-three hours. I give brief speeches because I try to understand and reach out to you people,” Gandhi said at a public meeting at Rajim in the Mahasamund Lok Sabha constituency, some 45 km from Chhattisgarh capital Raipur.

Pointing at the gathering, the Congress MP said: “I need your trust. I look at the world through the eyes of the poor but the opposition does not, that is why they treat my stay at poor people’s houses as drama.”

Gandhi said the Congress party’s biggest fight is “against the poverty”.

“If India will rise, everyone will progress included the poor, Dalits and tribals. But the opposition does not talk about poor people’s problems.

“They talk about terrorism though the fact is that parliament was attacked and an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked and taken to Kandahar during their (the Bharatiya Janata Party-Led National Democratic Alliance’s) regime,” Gandhi remarked in his barely 10-minute speech.

He said that during the five years of its rule, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government focused on pro-poor schemes and launched several welfare initiatives including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

This was Gandhi’s third visit of the state in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections. Chhattisgarh has 11 Lok Sabha seats and goes to polls in the first phase, April 16.